Unrecognised Villages
Perhaps best indicative of the way in which the Palestinian minority has been marginalised and assigned second-class status within Israelis the case of the "unrecognized villages". These are tens of mostly Arab Bedouin communities which the Israeli government wishes to relocate. Refusing to recognise their existence or legality, the Israeli government forbids these communities to build or repair homes, demolishes homes built without the requisite though unattainable permit, and provides no basic services such as electricity, water, health, and educational facilities, paved roads or other infrastructure. The health conditions of this population are among the worst in the country, and in the Negev, for instance, only some 30 percent of Bedouin infants are fully immunised and one third of infants are hospitalised at some time in their first year of life. This lack of governmental assistance, coupled with the threat of home demolition and forced eviction, is used as a means of pressure by the Israeli government to drive the people from their homes.
Just over half of the Bedouin living outside the townships live in unrecognised villages. Under the Law of Planning and Construction (1965) their houses can be demolished. To speed up the sedentarisation process, in 1986 the Markovitz Committee on unlicensed building, which did not consult any representative of the Negev Bedouin, recommended the demolition of 6,601 existing homes and all new buildings in the Negev. Subsequent governments have maintained this policy.
According to the Association of Forty, there are currently 22,000 unrecognised homes in the Negev. In 1998, 370 homes were demolished by the Israeli authorities. Approximately 1,700 cases are currently being prosecuted in court. These figures do not include those homes demolished by the owners themselves.
In order to put pressure on the Bedouin to leave the unrecognised villages, official policy is to deny these communities basic services and prevent them from developing infrastructure. Planning laws are used to prevent villagers from building any permanent constructions or repairing existing temporary ones. Connection to water and electricity networks is prohibited.
Today approximately 110,000 Arab Bedouin live in the Negev, half in the poorest recognised localities in Israel. The other half of the Bedouin population lives in villages unrecognised by the state. They are denied all forms of basic services and infrastructure, and are unable to build or develop their communities in any way.